1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to mosaic effect generating apparatus and, more particularly, to a mosaic effect generating apparatus which utilizes a one line memory.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,643, for example, describes an apparatus for generating a mosaic effect in which when a video signal of one field period is formed of pixel signals of X number in the horizontal direction and of Y number in the vertical direction, that is, pixel signals of X .times.Y number, pixel information of adjacent pixel signals of x number (2.ltoreq.x.ltoreq.X) in the horizontal direction and of y number (2.ltoreq.y.ltoreq.Y) in the vertical direction, that is, adjacent pixel information in an area of size X by Y pixels becomes the same.
Further, in a conventional mosaic effect generating apparatus utilizing a field memory, a digital video signal of one field period is written in a field memory (i.e., random access memory (RAM)) having addresses of X number in the horizontal direction of the field memory and addresses of Y number in the vertical direction, that is, addresses of X.times.Y number, one address is accessed during pixel signals of x number in the horizontal direction and one address is accessed during pixel signals of y number in the vertical direction to read pixel signals stored in the addresses, thereby obtaining a mosaic effect digital video signal.
Such prior-art mosaic effect generating apparatus requires the field memory and an address control circuit for accessing the address such that proper addresses are selected and other addresses are thrown away. Therefore, the conventional mosaic effect generating apparatus is complicated in arrangement and is expensive. Further, the power consumption thereof is large.